TSM Aquatics is amazing!

[Indytraveler83]

So here's the short version (or as short as I can get it):

I recently created a thread expressing my frustration with keeping anthias. Love the fish, but in 3 rounds, I lost 6 of 8 within 48 hours of getting the animals. All my sources so far have gotten me fish that have to be coaxed to eat, and are VERY sick. It was suggested I try TSM, as they QT their fish before shipping. I was hesitant, but was told to reach out to them and see what they thought. I reached out to them, as well as another recommended vendor (who I won't name) with questions.

TSM responded within an hour, and I ended up with an email conversation that lasted about 15 emails before I made my purchase (the other vendor still hasn't returned my email btw). I described my situation of having 2 female anthias and wanting a group. They recommended against getting a male unless I was dead set on it, as they felt one of my current females would likely turn male, and said they thought I should order 4 females to complete the group. They even asked what color variation my current anthias were, as they had both pink and orange varieties. They also described their QT procedure as " All of our fish receive a full 30+ days of copper at therapeutic level and 3 rounds of praziquantal. We will not ship you any fish that we don't feel are 100% healthy."

My only (small) issue with TSM is that you have to spend $300 to qualify for free shipping. So I decided to plunge in and ordered the following:
Melanurus Wrasse (Halichoeres malanurus) × 1Male
Long Nose Hawkfish (Owycirrhites typus) × 1
Redhead Solon Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus solorensis) × 1
Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) × 4 Female

I've long wanted a redheaded solon Fairy Wrasse, been looking for a Halichoeres wrasse for my tank, and always been curious about hawkfish. TSM reached out as soon as I placed the order to be sure we could agree on a shipping day. We agreed on this Thursday, and then I waited.

Thursday came, and thankfully the fish arrived even earlier than expected, right at 9 AM. My first though was "Oh my goodness this box is HEAVY!" They were well packed with heat pads and each fish was separate in about half a gallon of water (had to empty my 1 gallon bucket 4 times when emptying the bags). TSM keeps their salinity at 1.026, and I had already decided I wanted to rely on their QT and add them directly, as I've had little to no success with QT on either anthias or wrasse.

When I introduced the new fish to the DT, I immediately fed thawed brine shrimp, to help distract the current residents from the new fish. Much to my surprise, every single one of the new additions quickly joined in the meal. I've been trying to feed at last 3x a day, and all of the new fish have joined in on the feeding. All of them look healthy and happy, and only 1 of the new anthias is even shy, the rest are all clamoring for food as soon as I get near the tank.

My biggest surprise is that the hawkfish has been taking food directly from my hand, and has set up territory high in the water column near the wavemaker so that he can be the first to eat when I feed them.

I know TSM has a reputation for being "expensive" but 1) its totally worth it to get healthy, well adjusted fish. and 2) if you look around, they aren't as expensive as another major vendor lately...

To me, I would rather buy a slightly higher priced fish once, rather than go through 2 or 3 of the same fish to try to get a single one into my display. TSM even emailed me after they saw the shipment arrived to see if I had gotten it, and if all the animals were to my satisfaction, and if I had any questions.

I would absolutely recommend them again, and likely will buy any future fish from them (no longer trust my lfs).

 

[Indytraveler83]

Here's a few pictures of the new additions (please excuse the unclean glass)

 

[blackstallion]

Here's a few pictures of the new additions (please excuse the unclean glass)

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but did all of the fish you received from TSM survive? Looks like you didn't QT, did any of them exhibit any signs of Ich/Velvet/Brook/flukes/etc?

 

[Indytraveler83]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but did all of the fish you received from TSM survive? Looks like you didn't QT, did any of them exhibit any signs of Ich/Velvet/Brook/flukes/etc?

No worries! I had no signs of disease at all. Here's how everyone fared:

4x anthias - two were bullied to death, which was unfortunately obviously going to happen early on. My existing anthias picked out who could join and who could not. The other two are doing great. I never saw any signs of illness on any of the anthias, which is impressive.

Salon wrasse- he was doing great until he decided to go carpet surfing. Lesson learned- if you don't have a glass top, wrasse will find a way out of wire/mesh whatever.

Melanarus wrasse- he thrived from the start and has nearly doubled in size. Crazy cool fish that is only aggressive toward bristleworms and pods.

Long-nosed hawkfish- he's eaten literally from my hand since day 1. He's like a trained dog in my tank and is quite a bit bigger now.


Overall- I would definitely buy from them again. The fish I got were readily conditioned to accept food from a human, and showed no signs of disease. I will not be QTing what I get from them, simply because my own QT process is less effective than theirs, but your thoughts may differ.

 

[blackstallion]

No worries! I had no signs of disease at all. Here's how everyone fared:

4x anthias - two were bullied to death, which was unfortunately obviously going to happen early on. My existing anthias picked out who could join and who could not. The other two are doing great. I never saw any signs of illness on any of the anthias, which is impressive.

Salon wrasse- he was doing great until he decided to go carpet surfing. Lesson learned- if you don't have a glass top, wrasse will find a way out of wire/mesh whatever.

Melanarus wrasse- he thrived from the start and has nearly doubled in size. Crazy cool fish that is only aggressive toward bristleworms and pods.

Long-nosed hawkfish- he's eaten literally from my hand since day 1. He's like a trained dog in my tank and is quite a bit bigger now.


Overall- I would definitely buy from them again. The fish I got were readily conditioned to accept food from a human, and showed no signs of disease. I will not be QTing what I get from them, simply because my own QT process is less effective than theirs, but your thoughts may differ.

I would probably QT just to observe they are not infected with any disease and make sure they're eating, but, I wouldn't medicate or dose copper unless I noticed something.

Do you know how much shipping would typically be from them if not reaching the $300 order limit? And what overnight shipping provider did they use?

 

[Indytraveler83]

I would probably QT just to observe they are not infected with any disease and make sure they're eating, but, I wouldn't medicate or dose copper unless I noticed something.

Do you know how much shipping would typically be from them if not reaching the $300 order limit? And what overnight shipping provider did they use?

Totally understand why you'd want to QT. I simply don't have a good permanent QT tank right now, and trying to run a temporary uncycled10 gallon has done more harm than good for me.

I think they base shipping on distance and weight. So anywhere between $50 and $100 would be my best guess. If you do a mock purchase it'll tell you for sure.

My package arrived from FedEx.

 

[Badboyan93l]

So here's the short version (or as short as I can get it):

I recently created a thread expressing my frustration with keeping anthias. Love the fish, but in 3 rounds, I lost 6 of 8 within 48 hours of getting the animals. All my sources so far have gotten me fish that have to be coaxed to eat, and are VERY sick. It was suggested I try TSM, as they QT their fish before shipping. I was hesitant, but was told to reach out to them and see what they thought. I reached out to them, as well as another recommended vendor (who I won't name) with questions.

TSM responded within an hour, and I ended up with an email conversation that lasted about 15 emails before I made my purchase (the other vendor still hasn't returned my email btw). I described my situation of having 2 female anthias and wanting a group. They recommended against getting a male unless I was dead set on it, as they felt one of my current females would likely turn male, and said they thought I should order 4 females to complete the group. They even asked what color variation my current anthias were, as they had both pink and orange varieties. They also described their QT procedure as " All of our fish receive a full 30+ days of copper at therapeutic level and 3 rounds of praziquantal. We will not ship you any fish that we don't feel are 100% healthy."

My only (small) issue with TSM is that you have to spend $300 to qualify for free shipping. So I decided to plunge in and ordered the following:
Melanurus Wrasse (Halichoeres malanurus) × 1Male
Long Nose Hawkfish (Owycirrhites typus) × 1
Redhead Solon Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus solorensis) × 1
Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) × 4 Female

I've long wanted a redheaded solon Fairy Wrasse, been looking for a Halichoeres wrasse for my tank, and always been curious about hawkfish. TSM reached out as soon as I placed the order to be sure we could agree on a shipping day. We agreed on this Thursday, and then I waited.

Thursday came, and thankfully the fish arrived even earlier than expected, right at 9 AM. My first though was "Oh my goodness this box is HEAVY!" They were well packed with heat pads and each fish was separate in about half a gallon of water (had to empty my 1 gallon bucket 4 times when emptying the bags). TSM keeps their salinity at 1.026, and I had already decided I wanted to rely on their QT and add them directly, as I've had little to no success with QT on either anthias or wrasse.

When I introduced the new fish to the DT, I immediately fed thawed brine shrimp, to help distract the current residents from the new fish. Much to my surprise, every single one of the new additions quickly joined in the meal. I've been trying to feed at last 3x a day, and all of the new fish have joined in on the feeding. All of them look healthy and happy, and only 1 of the new anthias is even shy, the rest are all clamoring for food as soon as I get near the tank.

My biggest surprise is that the hawkfish has been taking food directly from my hand, and has set up territory high in the water column near the wavemaker so that he can be the first to eat when I feed them.

I know TSM has a reputation for being "expensive" but 1) its totally worth it to get healthy, well adjusted fish. and 2) if you look around, they aren't as expensive as another major vendor lately...

To me, I would rather buy a slightly higher priced fish once, rather than go through 2 or 3 of the same fish to try to get a single one into my display. TSM even emailed me after they saw the shipment arrived to see if I had gotten it, and if all the animals were to my satisfaction, and if I had any questions.

I would absolutely recommend them again, and likely will buy any future fish from them (no longer trust my lfs).

Same here. you save a lot of headaches and money when you buy from TSM!